1915
Psychic Student and Noted Clairvoyant Get Messages From Fallen Soldiers, They Claim
NEW YORK, Dec. 18. — How does it feel to be killed in battle? Psychic investigators say the passing on is not usually unpleasant. Two vivid pictures of the soldier's life after death have just been given by Hereward Carrington of the Society for Psychical Research here.
These extraordinary stories, telling exactly what occurs in the spirit world over the battlefields of Europe, were revealed by clairvoyant vision and "higher sense," one in London and the other in New York, according to those who say they received them. The first comes from Robert King, famous English seer. This is King's story:
"I know a boy who was killed at the great battle of Neuve Chapelle. He has since described his experience to me. When he fell he had been filled with a kind of insane fury to get thru the obstacles of battle. Suddenly he felt a sharp twinge, but nothing more, and he continued, as he thought, on his mad rush, still bayoneting the enemy, when, suddenly he heard someone say, 'Stop, it is finished.'
"Then everything seemed to fall away, and he found standing before him a relative who had passed on some years before. He looked at this relative in astonishment and said, 'Why, I thought you were dead.'
"His relative smiled and said:
"'Yes, it is quite true, and so are you.'"
A celebrated New York clairvoyant told Carrington:
"Several soldiers who have returned to me from the spirit world have related that they did not feel anything like pain — being only disposed to sleep profoundly.
"The soul becomes the vehicle or body of the spirit after death. Sometimes it takes days to complete the process. This is particularly true of those whose bodies have been badly shattered before death."
—Saturday Blade, Chicago, Dec. 18, 1915, p. 2.
Showing posts with label spiritualism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spiritualism. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Science Seeks Name to Give Mystic Energy
1921
Theosophical Lecturer Tells of Scramble to Identify Mysterious Force
Eugene W. Munson, of the National Theosophical Society, lectured on theosophy in the auditorium of the City Library Monday night. Weather conditions prevented a very large attendance.
Mr. Munson spoke on "The Hidden Side of Things." For several years he has been traveling in the United States. His lecture tonight will be illustrated with slides.
"The search today for that mysterious energy back of living forms is a scramble. Practically all schools of modern science and philosophy are in the hunt. And these schools have given the thing for which they are searching a name. Science calls it energy. New Thought calls it Mind, Spiritualists say it is the spirit, psychologists call in the subconscious mind, and Christian Scientists call it Divine Mind. Theosophists agree with all of them. We see a grand scheme of evolution in which Divine Life, manifesting as the sons of God, wells up through myriads of forms with its outward going energy. This intangible potency, eternal mystery, or indwelling life is the thing for which men search."
Mr. Munson said that the method by which this "Spirit" contracted matter was complex and worthy of considerable study. He told and illustrated how vibrations tended to run up and down the scale, reflecting into the higher as well as the lower forms.
—The Capital Times, Madison, Wisconsin, Oct. 11, 1921, p. 3.
Theosophical Lecturer Tells of Scramble to Identify Mysterious Force
Eugene W. Munson, of the National Theosophical Society, lectured on theosophy in the auditorium of the City Library Monday night. Weather conditions prevented a very large attendance.
Mr. Munson spoke on "The Hidden Side of Things." For several years he has been traveling in the United States. His lecture tonight will be illustrated with slides.
"The search today for that mysterious energy back of living forms is a scramble. Practically all schools of modern science and philosophy are in the hunt. And these schools have given the thing for which they are searching a name. Science calls it energy. New Thought calls it Mind, Spiritualists say it is the spirit, psychologists call in the subconscious mind, and Christian Scientists call it Divine Mind. Theosophists agree with all of them. We see a grand scheme of evolution in which Divine Life, manifesting as the sons of God, wells up through myriads of forms with its outward going energy. This intangible potency, eternal mystery, or indwelling life is the thing for which men search."
Mr. Munson said that the method by which this "Spirit" contracted matter was complex and worthy of considerable study. He told and illustrated how vibrations tended to run up and down the scale, reflecting into the higher as well as the lower forms.
—The Capital Times, Madison, Wisconsin, Oct. 11, 1921, p. 3.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Photographed "Spirits"
1876
"Spirits," though still refusing to be captured like ordinary mortals, have consented to allow themselves to be photographed. They now obediently follow those over whom they watch to the studios of photographers, and there falling into a graceful attitude, allow those who believe themselves to be accompanied through life by a "guardian angel" to satisfy their vanity (and credulity) by having a carte-de-visite taken of themselves and their "attendant spirit." The resulting carte gives such an air of reality to the affair that it is considered rank folly to doubt any longer, when the spirit can be actually photographed, and these brought within the ken of the most hardened skeptic.
Such piteous folly on one side and arranged deception on the other are more prevalent than ordinary folks generally suppose. A case brought to our notice from Paris will illustrate the way in which this class of photographers impose on the public. The police, hearing that a certain photographer of that city was pocketing large profits by taking these photographs for credulous people, dispatched an emissary to discover the fraud. On making known his wish to be photographed with his guardian spirit, he was requested to leave the studio for a short time for the purpose of the spirit being invoked. During his absence, a plate, prepared in the ordinary way, was exposed to light for a few seconds opposite a screen whereon a vague ghostly image was figured. The man's photograph superposed — gave, it is needless to say, the required effect. The photographer, on a hint from the police, ceased to take spirit photographs.
These photographs may also be produced by the photographer's common process of printing from two negatives; one negative takes the sitter, the other the "spirit" as before, on printing from both the effects are combined. Another method depends upon a curious electrical fact. If a tinfoil device be laid between two sheets of glass, and tinfoil be laid on the outer surfaces of the glass, and then electric sparks passed between the tinfoil coatings, it is found that an image of the device is formed upon the two glass plates, caused by a molecular change in the glass. This image is at first invisible, but on breathing on the glass it becomes visible, and a photograph can then be taken of it in the ordinary way.
But the cleverest plan of all is that which utilizes the lately-discovered optical principle known as fluorescence. Paint on a white screen with sulphate of quinine (which is colorless) something shadowy to represent the "ethereal being." Expose this to bright sunlight for a short time, and then place your unsuspecting believer in "guardian angels" before this screen; photograph him in the ordinary way, and at the same time you obtain a picture of your painting, about which he is ignorant. Finish the photograph in the ordinary way. The quinine drawing will "come out" hazy and indistinct as part of the picture, and then your believer in spirits who has longed to have his "attendant spirit" manifested to him, receives it tremblingly with gratitude. — Chamber's Journal.
"Spirits," though still refusing to be captured like ordinary mortals, have consented to allow themselves to be photographed. They now obediently follow those over whom they watch to the studios of photographers, and there falling into a graceful attitude, allow those who believe themselves to be accompanied through life by a "guardian angel" to satisfy their vanity (and credulity) by having a carte-de-visite taken of themselves and their "attendant spirit." The resulting carte gives such an air of reality to the affair that it is considered rank folly to doubt any longer, when the spirit can be actually photographed, and these brought within the ken of the most hardened skeptic.
Such piteous folly on one side and arranged deception on the other are more prevalent than ordinary folks generally suppose. A case brought to our notice from Paris will illustrate the way in which this class of photographers impose on the public. The police, hearing that a certain photographer of that city was pocketing large profits by taking these photographs for credulous people, dispatched an emissary to discover the fraud. On making known his wish to be photographed with his guardian spirit, he was requested to leave the studio for a short time for the purpose of the spirit being invoked. During his absence, a plate, prepared in the ordinary way, was exposed to light for a few seconds opposite a screen whereon a vague ghostly image was figured. The man's photograph superposed — gave, it is needless to say, the required effect. The photographer, on a hint from the police, ceased to take spirit photographs.
These photographs may also be produced by the photographer's common process of printing from two negatives; one negative takes the sitter, the other the "spirit" as before, on printing from both the effects are combined. Another method depends upon a curious electrical fact. If a tinfoil device be laid between two sheets of glass, and tinfoil be laid on the outer surfaces of the glass, and then electric sparks passed between the tinfoil coatings, it is found that an image of the device is formed upon the two glass plates, caused by a molecular change in the glass. This image is at first invisible, but on breathing on the glass it becomes visible, and a photograph can then be taken of it in the ordinary way.
But the cleverest plan of all is that which utilizes the lately-discovered optical principle known as fluorescence. Paint on a white screen with sulphate of quinine (which is colorless) something shadowy to represent the "ethereal being." Expose this to bright sunlight for a short time, and then place your unsuspecting believer in "guardian angels" before this screen; photograph him in the ordinary way, and at the same time you obtain a picture of your painting, about which he is ignorant. Finish the photograph in the ordinary way. The quinine drawing will "come out" hazy and indistinct as part of the picture, and then your believer in spirits who has longed to have his "attendant spirit" manifested to him, receives it tremblingly with gratitude. — Chamber's Journal.
Death Merely a Transition is "Word" of Dead Boston Pastor
1921
While the experiences of Dr. Elliott and the Braintree business man have been advanced by British spiritists as valid physical proof of the existence of another world (involving a guardian angel and visions of the crucified Christ), psychic manifestations are still being reported in the United States as competent evidence.
In Boston, Mass., a series of lectures are being delivered by what is represented as the personalities of various men and women who have died, through the body of the Rev. F. A. Wiggin, pastor of Unity Church. The first of these lectures was given recently when Dr. George C. Lorimer, late pastor of Tremont Temple, who died in 1904, supposedly spoke.
There was nothing uncanny about this service. After congregational singing and a prayer, Rev. Mr. Wiggin stepped forward, closed his eyes and announced his text from the seventeenth verse of the seventh chapter of Corinthians — "As the Lord hath called every one so let him walk."
It was Rev. Dr. Lorimer who was now talking through Mr. Wiggin. As Dr. Wiggin lifted his head the whole gesture was undeniably reminiscent of Rev. Dr. Lorimer, according to those who knew that well known pastor.
But "Dr. Lorimer" made no reference to the unusual fact that he was addressing a Boston audience for the first time since he had died in 1904, nor that he found anything new and strange in the Boston of 1921, nor to the fact that the world had been through one of the greatest wars of all times. He "spoke" as he might have spoken in 1900, using such references and analogies in the application of his text and the development of his theme as were common at that time.
"Dr. Lorimer" did assure his hearers that death meant nothing except a sort of transition into another world, in which men continue the work of this world in much the same way as they had worked and lived here. And Christ was just as much of a force for good and just as much of a mystery there as here.
—Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, Fort Wayne, Indiana, Jan. 1, 1922, section 4, page 2.
Comment: That's a very interesting statement right at the end, that after the transition into another world Christ is just as much a mystery there as here.
While the experiences of Dr. Elliott and the Braintree business man have been advanced by British spiritists as valid physical proof of the existence of another world (involving a guardian angel and visions of the crucified Christ), psychic manifestations are still being reported in the United States as competent evidence.
In Boston, Mass., a series of lectures are being delivered by what is represented as the personalities of various men and women who have died, through the body of the Rev. F. A. Wiggin, pastor of Unity Church. The first of these lectures was given recently when Dr. George C. Lorimer, late pastor of Tremont Temple, who died in 1904, supposedly spoke.
There was nothing uncanny about this service. After congregational singing and a prayer, Rev. Mr. Wiggin stepped forward, closed his eyes and announced his text from the seventeenth verse of the seventh chapter of Corinthians — "As the Lord hath called every one so let him walk."
It was Rev. Dr. Lorimer who was now talking through Mr. Wiggin. As Dr. Wiggin lifted his head the whole gesture was undeniably reminiscent of Rev. Dr. Lorimer, according to those who knew that well known pastor.
But "Dr. Lorimer" made no reference to the unusual fact that he was addressing a Boston audience for the first time since he had died in 1904, nor that he found anything new and strange in the Boston of 1921, nor to the fact that the world had been through one of the greatest wars of all times. He "spoke" as he might have spoken in 1900, using such references and analogies in the application of his text and the development of his theme as were common at that time.
"Dr. Lorimer" did assure his hearers that death meant nothing except a sort of transition into another world, in which men continue the work of this world in much the same way as they had worked and lived here. And Christ was just as much of a force for good and just as much of a mystery there as here.
—Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, Fort Wayne, Indiana, Jan. 1, 1922, section 4, page 2.
Comment: That's a very interesting statement right at the end, that after the transition into another world Christ is just as much a mystery there as here.
Prayed for Their Guardian Angel — And the Angel Came!
1921
A British Clergyman and His Wife Tell About a Most Remarkable Visitation — and All England Marvels at the Story and Its "Corroboration."
LONDON, Dec. 20. — Rev. Maurice Elliott, vicar in the village of Snitterby, Lincolnshire, believes in his guardian angel with the same certainty that he believes in the existence of his village grocer. For the clergyman, according to his sworn testimony, has seen this angel with his own eyes, has heard the sound of his voice, has touched his glistening robe. The angel came at a crisis in the clergyman's life and by his good counsel enabled him and his wife to meet the situation without disaster.
The revelation of Mr. Elliott created considerable talk all over England, but a sensation was caused when it became known that many of the facts of his visitation had been corroborated by a celebrated London physician. Since that time a number of other physicians declare that they have met with similar cases and believe Mr. Elliott's story implicitly. There is as much reason to believe that a person has a guardian angel, they say, as it is to believe any of the commonly accepted physical facts of life. They contend, that such a belief is as provable, by resort to the ordinary senses, as, for instance, the law of specific gravity.
Dr. Elliott is a popular member of the clergy and is highly regarded as a thinker. His interview with his guardian angel came at a time, he said, when his wife was about to have a child and her life was in serious danger.
He was very fearful regarding her condition and sought the advice of a London specialist. The specialist advised an immediate operation, but admitted that such an operation would involve a dangerous risk.
"My wife and I," said Dr. Elliott, "prayed with all our hearts for guidance in this troubled hour. We prayed that if there was an angel specially appointed to protect and guide me and mine — that he appear to us and counsel us. And the evening before my wife was to go into a nursing home he did appear.
"The angel was a male. His figure was more majestic than that of men on earth. His eyes were extraordinary in their beauty and brightness. Ha spoke with a voice that was bell-like. He came to us in our room and at his appearance we felt not the slightest sense of terror — only a feeling of complete calm. He spoke in everyday language. It was as if a link between us and heaven had been established.
"We asked him what we must do about the specialist's advice. He replied that the specialist was wrong in advising an operation and that such a course would be fatal. 'Don't have it,' he told us. 'The physician's diagnosis is wrong.'
"The angel's visit decided us. When the physician came the next day to see us about the removal of my wife to the nursing home, we told him what had happened and that Mrs. Elliott had made up her mind to forgo the operation.
"Naturally, the doctor was astonished beyond measure, but did not argue the matter with us. I might add that he has, himself, taken a keen interest in the case ever since.
"A few days later we again asked Divine guidance. We wanted the angel to direct us to a medical man who would confirm the angel's statement. Again our prayers were answered. The angel appeared to us as he had on his first visit and told us to go to Brighton where we could meet the doctor we so much desired to see.
"Following these instructions we packed our bags and left the next day for Brighton. Before we arrived at the station the angel came to us in our compartment I do not imagine anyone else in the coach saw him, for nothing was said of it. The angel walked with us through the town and guided us to a hotel. He walked normally. There was no gliding or passing through substances. I noticed that he wore sandals. He conversed with us a good part of the time.
"After giving us full instructions as to the doctor we would meet there, what the doctor would look like and when we should approach him, the angel dematerialized and since then has not appeared to us."
The second day at the hotel, Dr. Elliott says, he recognized the physician from the angel's description as the man passed down the corridor into the drawing-room. Dr. Elliott followed him into the drawing-room and stated his case without asking him if he were a physician, so sure was he that the angel was correct,
The physician was naturally much astonished at being approached by a man who didn't even know his name, but though he had come to Brighton for a rest, finally consented to make an examination of Mrs, Elliott and a diagnosis of her case. He did not think an operation was necessary — in fact, he advised strongly against it.
The child born after this remarkable experience is a strong, healthy girl. Dr. Elliott says that when the baby was christened in Winchester Cathedral a company of angels was plainly manifest to himself and his wife.
A Vision of the Savior
For reasons of medical ethics, the physician who attended Mrs. Elliott would not permit the use of his name, but he confirmed the Brighton occurrence in detail.
Having a large practice the physician said he had gone to Brighton for a few weeks' rest. He did not register as a medical man and nobody connected with the hotel or in the town knew him as such.
"Being on a holiday which I much needed," he said, "I naturally did not care to accept any cases. But when I asked Dr. Elliott how he knew I was a physician he told me his remarkable story. It interested me so much that I agreed to see his wife. I examined her and my own diagnosis of the case accorded exactly with what the angel had told them. They appeared much relieved when I gave them my opinion.
"While I have had no experience with spiritualism, in fact, I know scarcely nothing about it, I believe that with God all things are possible."
Concurrent with the Elliott case is that which is vouched for by Rev. W. J. L. Sheppard, who has been preaching at Braintree parish church, fifty miles out of London. A member of the congregation, a business man who had been associated in no way with spiritualism, told the pastor that he had seen a vision of Christ on the cross behind the chancel rail, during the progress of the service.
Rev. Dr. Sheppard recently announced the vision from the pulpit, saying to his startled congregation:
"During the evening service last Sunday a well known Braintree business man in the congregation saw a vision of the crucified Savior in the chancel of this church. He said he first saw the vision while kneeling in prayer. A bright light from a halo on the head of the crucified Christ filled the whole chancel and blotted out every other object. This is not a case of an emotional woman seeing a vision, but of a hard-headed man. The vision must be "taken as a divine revelation."
The business man told Mr. Sheppard that when he first saw the vision he bowed his head to collect his thoughts. He thought at first that it might be an optical illusion. When he looked up again the vision of the crucified Christ still filled the chancel. He looked at it about four minutes the second time. The vision did not speak or beckon to him, but looked with pleading eyes. Finally, the light from the halo faded gradually away and the vision disappeared. The man became quite ill and broke into a violent perspiration.
—Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne, Indiana, Jan. 1, 1922, section 4, page 2.
A British Clergyman and His Wife Tell About a Most Remarkable Visitation — and All England Marvels at the Story and Its "Corroboration."
LONDON, Dec. 20. — Rev. Maurice Elliott, vicar in the village of Snitterby, Lincolnshire, believes in his guardian angel with the same certainty that he believes in the existence of his village grocer. For the clergyman, according to his sworn testimony, has seen this angel with his own eyes, has heard the sound of his voice, has touched his glistening robe. The angel came at a crisis in the clergyman's life and by his good counsel enabled him and his wife to meet the situation without disaster.
The revelation of Mr. Elliott created considerable talk all over England, but a sensation was caused when it became known that many of the facts of his visitation had been corroborated by a celebrated London physician. Since that time a number of other physicians declare that they have met with similar cases and believe Mr. Elliott's story implicitly. There is as much reason to believe that a person has a guardian angel, they say, as it is to believe any of the commonly accepted physical facts of life. They contend, that such a belief is as provable, by resort to the ordinary senses, as, for instance, the law of specific gravity.
Dr. Elliott is a popular member of the clergy and is highly regarded as a thinker. His interview with his guardian angel came at a time, he said, when his wife was about to have a child and her life was in serious danger.
He was very fearful regarding her condition and sought the advice of a London specialist. The specialist advised an immediate operation, but admitted that such an operation would involve a dangerous risk.
"My wife and I," said Dr. Elliott, "prayed with all our hearts for guidance in this troubled hour. We prayed that if there was an angel specially appointed to protect and guide me and mine — that he appear to us and counsel us. And the evening before my wife was to go into a nursing home he did appear.
"The angel was a male. His figure was more majestic than that of men on earth. His eyes were extraordinary in their beauty and brightness. Ha spoke with a voice that was bell-like. He came to us in our room and at his appearance we felt not the slightest sense of terror — only a feeling of complete calm. He spoke in everyday language. It was as if a link between us and heaven had been established.
"We asked him what we must do about the specialist's advice. He replied that the specialist was wrong in advising an operation and that such a course would be fatal. 'Don't have it,' he told us. 'The physician's diagnosis is wrong.'
"The angel's visit decided us. When the physician came the next day to see us about the removal of my wife to the nursing home, we told him what had happened and that Mrs. Elliott had made up her mind to forgo the operation.
"Naturally, the doctor was astonished beyond measure, but did not argue the matter with us. I might add that he has, himself, taken a keen interest in the case ever since.
"A few days later we again asked Divine guidance. We wanted the angel to direct us to a medical man who would confirm the angel's statement. Again our prayers were answered. The angel appeared to us as he had on his first visit and told us to go to Brighton where we could meet the doctor we so much desired to see.
"Following these instructions we packed our bags and left the next day for Brighton. Before we arrived at the station the angel came to us in our compartment I do not imagine anyone else in the coach saw him, for nothing was said of it. The angel walked with us through the town and guided us to a hotel. He walked normally. There was no gliding or passing through substances. I noticed that he wore sandals. He conversed with us a good part of the time.
"After giving us full instructions as to the doctor we would meet there, what the doctor would look like and when we should approach him, the angel dematerialized and since then has not appeared to us."
The second day at the hotel, Dr. Elliott says, he recognized the physician from the angel's description as the man passed down the corridor into the drawing-room. Dr. Elliott followed him into the drawing-room and stated his case without asking him if he were a physician, so sure was he that the angel was correct,
The physician was naturally much astonished at being approached by a man who didn't even know his name, but though he had come to Brighton for a rest, finally consented to make an examination of Mrs, Elliott and a diagnosis of her case. He did not think an operation was necessary — in fact, he advised strongly against it.
The child born after this remarkable experience is a strong, healthy girl. Dr. Elliott says that when the baby was christened in Winchester Cathedral a company of angels was plainly manifest to himself and his wife.
A Vision of the Savior
For reasons of medical ethics, the physician who attended Mrs. Elliott would not permit the use of his name, but he confirmed the Brighton occurrence in detail.
Having a large practice the physician said he had gone to Brighton for a few weeks' rest. He did not register as a medical man and nobody connected with the hotel or in the town knew him as such.
"Being on a holiday which I much needed," he said, "I naturally did not care to accept any cases. But when I asked Dr. Elliott how he knew I was a physician he told me his remarkable story. It interested me so much that I agreed to see his wife. I examined her and my own diagnosis of the case accorded exactly with what the angel had told them. They appeared much relieved when I gave them my opinion.
"While I have had no experience with spiritualism, in fact, I know scarcely nothing about it, I believe that with God all things are possible."
Concurrent with the Elliott case is that which is vouched for by Rev. W. J. L. Sheppard, who has been preaching at Braintree parish church, fifty miles out of London. A member of the congregation, a business man who had been associated in no way with spiritualism, told the pastor that he had seen a vision of Christ on the cross behind the chancel rail, during the progress of the service.
Rev. Dr. Sheppard recently announced the vision from the pulpit, saying to his startled congregation:
"During the evening service last Sunday a well known Braintree business man in the congregation saw a vision of the crucified Savior in the chancel of this church. He said he first saw the vision while kneeling in prayer. A bright light from a halo on the head of the crucified Christ filled the whole chancel and blotted out every other object. This is not a case of an emotional woman seeing a vision, but of a hard-headed man. The vision must be "taken as a divine revelation."
The business man told Mr. Sheppard that when he first saw the vision he bowed his head to collect his thoughts. He thought at first that it might be an optical illusion. When he looked up again the vision of the crucified Christ still filled the chancel. He looked at it about four minutes the second time. The vision did not speak or beckon to him, but looked with pleading eyes. Finally, the light from the halo faded gradually away and the vision disappeared. The man became quite ill and broke into a violent perspiration.
—Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne, Indiana, Jan. 1, 1922, section 4, page 2.
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Pastor Defends Proposition of Existence of Real Angels
Lincoln, NE, 1909
BELIEVES IN REAL ANGELS
Dr. Herbert Yeuell Defends Proposition of Their Existence.
The sermon of the evening at the First Christian church last night by Dr. Herbert Yeuell was upon the theme, "Why the Angels Rejoice." The Bible reading was from the fifteenth chapter of Luke, containing the greatest of all parables, the "Prodigal Son." The usual spirited song service was conducted by Prof. A. F. Buss.
A touching solo was sung by Mr. Sturgiss, entitled "Jesus is the One."
The text of the sermon was from the tenth verse of the fifteenth chapter of Luke, "There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth."
Dr. Yeuell unequivocally and firmly defended the proposition of the real existence of real angels. The fact that we have never seen an angel is no proof that none exist. Neither have we seen gravity or ether or air. We take many things upon faith in the affairs of life. It is only fair to take spiritual things upon faith as well. The whirring of angels' wings are heard throughout all of the history of God's universe, and the development of His people.
The evangelist scored the doctrine of spiritualism and deplored the confusion that its advocates have spread. The angels of God are not dark winged shakers of tables, giving weird knocks and signs. The angels of God are creatures of real dignity and power. They are real instrumentalities of God, in working out his purposes in sacred and profane history.
Their song, "Glory to God, Peace on Earth, Good Will to Men," has reverberated throughout the whole Christian era.
Dr. Yeuell maintained that figuratively the humble followers and doers of God's will upon earth are in a sense his angels, but this does not disprove the existence of the supernal, heavenly messengers.
The philosophy of heaven is plain that the ninety and nine are not large enough an average for the heavenly fold. God wants that last hundredth sinner to return to the fold.
Jesus Christ lived in close touch with the angels of God. They buoyed Him up. They often surrounded Him in loving ministration.
They surrounded Jesus in His times of crisis. They rejoiced and exulted in His demonstration of power in so many instances.
The angels of God are real, effective and potent influences in the universe. We cannot afford to discredit their existence or their ministrations.
At the close of the sermon the ordinance of baptism was administered. This service is always especially beautiful as administered in this new church building, owing to the very effective illumination.
The sermon for tonight will be upon the theme, "Nebuchadnezzar's Furnaces." Meeting will begin sharp at 7:30. All are invited.
—The Nebraska State Journal, Lincoln, NE, Dec. 8, 1909, page 7.
BELIEVES IN REAL ANGELS
Dr. Herbert Yeuell Defends Proposition of Their Existence.
The sermon of the evening at the First Christian church last night by Dr. Herbert Yeuell was upon the theme, "Why the Angels Rejoice." The Bible reading was from the fifteenth chapter of Luke, containing the greatest of all parables, the "Prodigal Son." The usual spirited song service was conducted by Prof. A. F. Buss.
A touching solo was sung by Mr. Sturgiss, entitled "Jesus is the One."
The text of the sermon was from the tenth verse of the fifteenth chapter of Luke, "There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth."
Dr. Yeuell unequivocally and firmly defended the proposition of the real existence of real angels. The fact that we have never seen an angel is no proof that none exist. Neither have we seen gravity or ether or air. We take many things upon faith in the affairs of life. It is only fair to take spiritual things upon faith as well. The whirring of angels' wings are heard throughout all of the history of God's universe, and the development of His people.
The evangelist scored the doctrine of spiritualism and deplored the confusion that its advocates have spread. The angels of God are not dark winged shakers of tables, giving weird knocks and signs. The angels of God are creatures of real dignity and power. They are real instrumentalities of God, in working out his purposes in sacred and profane history.
Their song, "Glory to God, Peace on Earth, Good Will to Men," has reverberated throughout the whole Christian era.
Dr. Yeuell maintained that figuratively the humble followers and doers of God's will upon earth are in a sense his angels, but this does not disprove the existence of the supernal, heavenly messengers.
The philosophy of heaven is plain that the ninety and nine are not large enough an average for the heavenly fold. God wants that last hundredth sinner to return to the fold.
Jesus Christ lived in close touch with the angels of God. They buoyed Him up. They often surrounded Him in loving ministration.
They surrounded Jesus in His times of crisis. They rejoiced and exulted in His demonstration of power in so many instances.
The angels of God are real, effective and potent influences in the universe. We cannot afford to discredit their existence or their ministrations.
At the close of the sermon the ordinance of baptism was administered. This service is always especially beautiful as administered in this new church building, owing to the very effective illumination.
The sermon for tonight will be upon the theme, "Nebuchadnezzar's Furnaces." Meeting will begin sharp at 7:30. All are invited.
—The Nebraska State Journal, Lincoln, NE, Dec. 8, 1909, page 7.
Friday, April 27, 2007
Spiritualism Classified Ads
Reno, 1929
SPIRITUALISM
RIGHT REV. MARY M. BURROWS, Church of America (Spiritualist-Theosophical) — Public Services Sundays and Thursday, 8 p. m. Readings daily 2-4, 7-9. 1810 B. Street, Sparks, Nev.
QUEEN MAY, ordained spiritual medium. Phone 6079, 118 West Avenue.
SPECIAL this month in Readings. Rev. Nellie Van, Psychic WONDER. Seances every Tuesday, 8 o'clock. Room 20, Home Hotel. Phone 6204.
MADAM ROSETTA — Ordained medium; readings daily; seances Fri., 8 p. m. Phone R-6215. 734 Scott.
MADAM Estelle, ordained minister of the Gospel of Spiritualism. New York's well known psychic. Positively reliable. 237 W. Fourth street.
—Nevada State Journal, Reno, NV, Aug. 22, 1929, page 6.
SPIRITUALISM
RIGHT REV. MARY M. BURROWS, Church of America (Spiritualist-Theosophical) — Public Services Sundays and Thursday, 8 p. m. Readings daily 2-4, 7-9. 1810 B. Street, Sparks, Nev.
QUEEN MAY, ordained spiritual medium. Phone 6079, 118 West Avenue.
SPECIAL this month in Readings. Rev. Nellie Van, Psychic WONDER. Seances every Tuesday, 8 o'clock. Room 20, Home Hotel. Phone 6204.
MADAM ROSETTA — Ordained medium; readings daily; seances Fri., 8 p. m. Phone R-6215. 734 Scott.
MADAM Estelle, ordained minister of the Gospel of Spiritualism. New York's well known psychic. Positively reliable. 237 W. Fourth street.
—Nevada State Journal, Reno, NV, Aug. 22, 1929, page 6.
Church Note - First Spiritualist
Pennsylvania, 1933
First Spiritualist
Diaz Temple, Washington Avenue. Lyceum, 9:45 a. m. Evening service, 7:45 p. m. Lecture, healing and spirit greetings. Wednesday 7:30 p. m., regular mid-week service. Healing Center, Friday 7:30, followed by message, Development and Materialization Class. C. P. Diaz, Pastor.
—The Charleroi Mail, Charleroi, PA, June 3, 1933, page 4.
Comment: I like the sound of that, "Materialization Class." It's getting down to real practical stuff that the believer can do and see what happens. And it's kind of interesting that the name of the temple and the name of the pastor are the same.
First Spiritualist
Diaz Temple, Washington Avenue. Lyceum, 9:45 a. m. Evening service, 7:45 p. m. Lecture, healing and spirit greetings. Wednesday 7:30 p. m., regular mid-week service. Healing Center, Friday 7:30, followed by message, Development and Materialization Class. C. P. Diaz, Pastor.
—The Charleroi Mail, Charleroi, PA, June 3, 1933, page 4.
Comment: I like the sound of that, "Materialization Class." It's getting down to real practical stuff that the believer can do and see what happens. And it's kind of interesting that the name of the temple and the name of the pastor are the same.
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Go See Mrs. A. Brockway, High Priestess of Mediums
Iowa, 1903Click image for larger.
Mrs. A. Brockway advertises herself as one "who is acknowledged as the high priestess of all mediums." Anyone with that kind of reputation would, of course, have to be good. And according to her advertisement, she is. "She has given many years of study in occult science, which is the coming science of the age," plus her methods are clean and honest.
"A private reading will establish the fact in your mind that she is the peer of all mediums."
—Davenport Daily Republican, Davenport, Iowa, March 15, 1903, page 4.
Sappho and the Spiritualists
1903
The late lamented Sappho, the Greek poetess, has been writing more poems and communicating them to the world through a spiritualistic medium. We regret to note a distinct loss in style in the last 2,000 years, and, judging from other facts in her history we fear that her place in the Elysian Fields is not an entirely desirable one. — Philadelphia Inquirer.
The late lamented Sappho, the Greek poetess, has been writing more poems and communicating them to the world through a spiritualistic medium. We regret to note a distinct loss in style in the last 2,000 years, and, judging from other facts in her history we fear that her place in the Elysian Fields is not an entirely desirable one. — Philadelphia Inquirer.
Sermons — "Sin Under the Microscope"
New Castle, Pennsylvania, 1930
Highland United Presbyterian — C. J. Williamson, minister. At the evening service, the sermon topic, "I Didn't Mean Any Harm."
First Methodist Episcopal — Rev. H. C. Weaver, pastor. Morning Worship, "Youth Yields to Divine Wooing." Evening, "The First Lay Preachers."
First Baptist — Rev. Geo. M. Landis, pastor. Morning, "The Lord of Glory and the Glory of the Lord." Evening, "Sin Under the Microscope."
Emmanuel Baptist — Floyd A. Childs, pastor. Morning, "Christ the Rejected." Evening, "The Early Disciples of Christ."
The Reformer Presbyterian — Rev. E. A. Crooks, minister. Morning, "The Restored Glory of Jesus." Evening, "The Son of Man."
First Presbyterian — Minister, Rev. W. E. McClure, DD. Morning theme, "A Jailer Converted at Midnight." Evening worship theme, "Sacrifice — The Basic Element in Christianity."
Second United Presbyterian — Rev. A. J. Randles, minister. Morning, "The Best Dish at the Banquet." Evening, "Responsibility for Others."
First Christian — G. E. Bennett, pastor. Morning, "The Conversion of Paul." Evening, "The Mount of Decision."
Saint Andrew's Episcopal — George L. Grambs, minister-in-charge. Evening, "Man and the Son of Man."
First Congregational — Pastor, Rev. Rees T. Williams. Welsh service in the morning, "The Exercise of Godliness." English service in evening, "Man's True Home in God."
St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran — Rev. A. M. Stump, pastor. German services in the morning, "Unbelief's Despair." English in the evening, "God's Fragments Exceed Man's Whole Substance."
Italian M.E. — Rev. John Ruggiero, pastor. Morning, "The Need of a Spiritual Awakening."
Greenwood M.E. — Rev. R. B. Withers, pastor. Morning, "Go Ye."
St. Luke's A.M.E. Zion — Rev. G. H. Coffey, minister. Morning, "The Lost Savior, They Have Taken My Jesus Away and I Know Not Where to Find Him." Evening, "Auto Washing."
Greek Orthodox — Rev. J. Papachristou, pastor. "The Education Inspired by God."
Central Presbyterian — Rev. C. B. Wingerd, pastor. Morning, "Holding on the Horns." Evening, "Cashing In."
Third United Presbyterian — Rev. S. B. Copeland, pastor. Morning, "The Angel of Hope." Evening, "Christ as a Priest."
Primitive Methodist — Rev. W. C. Tyrrell, pastor. Morning, "How to Create the Grace of Giving." Evening, "A Presumptuous Impulsive Man's Downfall and Recovery."
First Spiritualist — Lectures by H. F. Mehlman, subject, "Where Are the Dead," messages by Ed Whiteman and local mediums.
Emanuel Evangelical — Rev. J. Pinkbeiner, pastor. German preaching in morning, "The Kindling of Divine Fire." English in evening, "A Revival of Religion."
Spiritual Services — A grand circle to be held. A demonstration of spirit return, mediums.
Second Baptist — Rev. W. W. Nelson, minister. Morning, "A Consciousness of Our Responsibilities to God." Evening, "Filling a Vacancy."
Castle Hill Mission — L. Schmidt, evangelist superintendent. Meeting at 3 p.m., "Confessing and Forsaking."
Union Baptist — Rev. C. D. Henderson, pastor. Evening sermon, "The Danger of Heart Murder."
Spiritualist Church of Truth — Lesson and preaching at 8 p.m., subject, "True Religion," with demonstration of spirit return, Mrs. A. E. Guthrie in charge.
Alliance Gospel Tabernacle — Rev. E. C. Anderson, pastor. Morning, "Behold Your King." Evening, evangelist service, "Christ in Bonds."
First Church of Christ, Scientist — "Reality."
Bethel A.M.E. — Rev. William Hodge, pastor. Morning, "Seeking the Lost Sheep." Evening, message by Rev. C. D. Henderson, "The Test of Negro Leadership."
Hoover Heights Tabernacle — Rev. Milton J. Scripture, pastor. Morning, "The Destiny of the Church." Evening evangelistic service, "Christ's Return to Earth."
Bethany Lutheran — Rev. Oscar Woods, pastor. "The Lord Feeds the Hungry."
—New Castle News, New Castle, Pennsylvania, March 29, 1930, page 6.
Highland United Presbyterian — C. J. Williamson, minister. At the evening service, the sermon topic, "I Didn't Mean Any Harm."
First Methodist Episcopal — Rev. H. C. Weaver, pastor. Morning Worship, "Youth Yields to Divine Wooing." Evening, "The First Lay Preachers."
First Baptist — Rev. Geo. M. Landis, pastor. Morning, "The Lord of Glory and the Glory of the Lord." Evening, "Sin Under the Microscope."
Emmanuel Baptist — Floyd A. Childs, pastor. Morning, "Christ the Rejected." Evening, "The Early Disciples of Christ."
The Reformer Presbyterian — Rev. E. A. Crooks, minister. Morning, "The Restored Glory of Jesus." Evening, "The Son of Man."
First Presbyterian — Minister, Rev. W. E. McClure, DD. Morning theme, "A Jailer Converted at Midnight." Evening worship theme, "Sacrifice — The Basic Element in Christianity."
Second United Presbyterian — Rev. A. J. Randles, minister. Morning, "The Best Dish at the Banquet." Evening, "Responsibility for Others."
First Christian — G. E. Bennett, pastor. Morning, "The Conversion of Paul." Evening, "The Mount of Decision."
Saint Andrew's Episcopal — George L. Grambs, minister-in-charge. Evening, "Man and the Son of Man."
First Congregational — Pastor, Rev. Rees T. Williams. Welsh service in the morning, "The Exercise of Godliness." English service in evening, "Man's True Home in God."
St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran — Rev. A. M. Stump, pastor. German services in the morning, "Unbelief's Despair." English in the evening, "God's Fragments Exceed Man's Whole Substance."
Italian M.E. — Rev. John Ruggiero, pastor. Morning, "The Need of a Spiritual Awakening."
Greenwood M.E. — Rev. R. B. Withers, pastor. Morning, "Go Ye."
St. Luke's A.M.E. Zion — Rev. G. H. Coffey, minister. Morning, "The Lost Savior, They Have Taken My Jesus Away and I Know Not Where to Find Him." Evening, "Auto Washing."
Greek Orthodox — Rev. J. Papachristou, pastor. "The Education Inspired by God."
Central Presbyterian — Rev. C. B. Wingerd, pastor. Morning, "Holding on the Horns." Evening, "Cashing In."
Third United Presbyterian — Rev. S. B. Copeland, pastor. Morning, "The Angel of Hope." Evening, "Christ as a Priest."
Primitive Methodist — Rev. W. C. Tyrrell, pastor. Morning, "How to Create the Grace of Giving." Evening, "A Presumptuous Impulsive Man's Downfall and Recovery."
First Spiritualist — Lectures by H. F. Mehlman, subject, "Where Are the Dead," messages by Ed Whiteman and local mediums.
Emanuel Evangelical — Rev. J. Pinkbeiner, pastor. German preaching in morning, "The Kindling of Divine Fire." English in evening, "A Revival of Religion."
Spiritual Services — A grand circle to be held. A demonstration of spirit return, mediums.
Second Baptist — Rev. W. W. Nelson, minister. Morning, "A Consciousness of Our Responsibilities to God." Evening, "Filling a Vacancy."
Castle Hill Mission — L. Schmidt, evangelist superintendent. Meeting at 3 p.m., "Confessing and Forsaking."
Union Baptist — Rev. C. D. Henderson, pastor. Evening sermon, "The Danger of Heart Murder."
Spiritualist Church of Truth — Lesson and preaching at 8 p.m., subject, "True Religion," with demonstration of spirit return, Mrs. A. E. Guthrie in charge.
Alliance Gospel Tabernacle — Rev. E. C. Anderson, pastor. Morning, "Behold Your King." Evening, evangelist service, "Christ in Bonds."
First Church of Christ, Scientist — "Reality."
Bethel A.M.E. — Rev. William Hodge, pastor. Morning, "Seeking the Lost Sheep." Evening, message by Rev. C. D. Henderson, "The Test of Negro Leadership."
Hoover Heights Tabernacle — Rev. Milton J. Scripture, pastor. Morning, "The Destiny of the Church." Evening evangelistic service, "Christ's Return to Earth."
Bethany Lutheran — Rev. Oscar Woods, pastor. "The Lord Feeds the Hungry."
—New Castle News, New Castle, Pennsylvania, March 29, 1930, page 6.
Monday, April 16, 2007
"Mother's Prayer" Answered, Son Gives Up Prize Fighting
Indianapolis, 1912
Church Notices
MRS. WOODWORTH MEETINGS — She will be assisted Sunday afternoon and evening, Feb. 4, by Kid McCoy's mother of Los Angeles, who has just received a letter from her son in Paris, who is going to give up prize fighting in answer to a "mother's prayer" and tour the world with her and make his mother happy hereafter. Bring the sick and afflicted and get them healed. Take Columbia car and get off at Seventeenth and Martindale avenue.
SPIRITUALIST — The Arrow Tecumseh Spiritual Society will meet at 28 South Summit street Sunday evening at 7:30; circle Thursday, 2:30. Everybody welcome. Take East Washington car.
SPIRITUALIST — The advance Spiritual Church of Truth Seekers, conducted by Mrs. E. C. Richards, meets every Sunday evening, 7:45, at Itasca Hall, 361 Indiana avenue. Friends all welcome.
—The Indianapolis Star, Indianapolis, February 4, 1912, page 1 of classified section.
Church Notices
MRS. WOODWORTH MEETINGS — She will be assisted Sunday afternoon and evening, Feb. 4, by Kid McCoy's mother of Los Angeles, who has just received a letter from her son in Paris, who is going to give up prize fighting in answer to a "mother's prayer" and tour the world with her and make his mother happy hereafter. Bring the sick and afflicted and get them healed. Take Columbia car and get off at Seventeenth and Martindale avenue.
SPIRITUALIST — The Arrow Tecumseh Spiritual Society will meet at 28 South Summit street Sunday evening at 7:30; circle Thursday, 2:30. Everybody welcome. Take East Washington car.
SPIRITUALIST — The advance Spiritual Church of Truth Seekers, conducted by Mrs. E. C. Richards, meets every Sunday evening, 7:45, at Itasca Hall, 361 Indiana avenue. Friends all welcome.
—The Indianapolis Star, Indianapolis, February 4, 1912, page 1 of classified section.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Sir Conan Doyle Challenged to Produce Ectoplasm
1922
CHALLENGES SIR CONAN DOYLE TO PRODUCE PLASM
Bath, Me., April 29. — The fiction of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is more believable than his facts, and the former will do the world more good, President Clifton D. Gray of Bates college told a meeting of the Sagadahoc Teachers' association.
"Let him write more Sherlock Holmes stories," he added.
"Sir Arthur's evidence of existence beyond the grave have a box office value, but they would stand a poor show in the laboratory," President Gray said. "When he can bring in a vial containing a bit of ectoplasm, it will be time to listen to him. It is a matter of test tubes. The laboratories of Bates college are open to him.
"When the father of Sherlock Holmes succeeds in doing for ectoplasm what Mme. Curie has done for radium, the colleges of the country will be no less ready to recognize his contribution to scientific knowledge than they were in the case of the little Polish woman."
PASTOR'S BODY FOUND IN RIVER
Peoria, Ill., April 29 — The body of the Rev. W. J. Leach, missing pastor of the Averyville Presbyterian church and former newspaper man, was found today by a fisherman, wedged between willows on the Illinois river.
—Syracuse Herald, Syracuse, New York, April 29, 1922, page 9.
CHALLENGES SIR CONAN DOYLE TO PRODUCE PLASM
Bath, Me., April 29. — The fiction of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is more believable than his facts, and the former will do the world more good, President Clifton D. Gray of Bates college told a meeting of the Sagadahoc Teachers' association.
"Let him write more Sherlock Holmes stories," he added.
"Sir Arthur's evidence of existence beyond the grave have a box office value, but they would stand a poor show in the laboratory," President Gray said. "When he can bring in a vial containing a bit of ectoplasm, it will be time to listen to him. It is a matter of test tubes. The laboratories of Bates college are open to him.
"When the father of Sherlock Holmes succeeds in doing for ectoplasm what Mme. Curie has done for radium, the colleges of the country will be no less ready to recognize his contribution to scientific knowledge than they were in the case of the little Polish woman."
PASTOR'S BODY FOUND IN RIVER
Peoria, Ill., April 29 — The body of the Rev. W. J. Leach, missing pastor of the Averyville Presbyterian church and former newspaper man, was found today by a fisherman, wedged between willows on the Illinois river.
—Syracuse Herald, Syracuse, New York, April 29, 1922, page 9.
Spirit Taught Her to Sing, She Says
1920
CLAIMS VISION OF PATTI CAME AND GAVE HER ADVICE
With No Knowledge of Music, Girl Startles Critics by Her Wonderful Tones
NEW YORK, N. Y. -- Miss Belle Philrose, 23, who says she has never studied vocal culture and cannot read music, solemnly asserts that the spirit of Adelina Patti is teaching her to sing.
After the death of her parents, ten years ago, the girl went to live with Mr. and Mrs. Philip Levin and moved with them to Astoria two years ago. She does the housework for the family, but is treated as a daughter. She says she never got beyond the fifth grade of the grammar school and never was interested in music, not even humming tunes about her housework. The change came last October.
"Face Appeared in Room"
"Late one afternoon, while I was finishing some sewing," she said, "the sweet face of a woman appeared before me in the room. I didn't see anybody -- just the face, of no particular age, with dark eyes and dark hair rolled back. 'I am Adelina Patti,' said the smiling lips. 'You are too gifted to be a servant. You should be a great singer. I will teach you.'
"From time to time the vision appeared again, urging me to sing, and saying I should be a reincarnation of Patti. So I began playing and singing, though I cannot read a note of music, and no one ever showed me how to sing. Jake Dale, musical director of the war camp community service, heard me and was amazed when I told him I had never studied. He got me the chance to sing for the soldiers.
"When a famous woman teacher offered to instruct me free, the vision told me not to let anyone teach me -- that Patti herself would do it.
"I see the vision every day or two now."
Even Speaking Voice Changes
Miss Philrose says confidence has taken the place of diffidence since she began singing under Patti's direction. Even her speaking voice has changed.
She sat at the piano and played and sang Tosti's "Goodbye" and part of the "Chanson Provencale" in a sweet, bell-like soprano, without affectation. She says that Dr. Walter F. Prince, investigating officer of the Psychical Research Society, was studying her case, and pronounced it one of "remarkable music control."
Jack Dale admits he cannot understand the phenomenon. He thinks there is something psychical about it, but suggested her idea of a "vision" might have originated in a novel. He had never known anybody to do the things she does without coaching. At a trial in the Amsterdam Opera House, he said, she took a high C and sustained it in a way that startled her critical hearers, and then hadn't any idea what she had done.
She is of French descent, a pleasant looking girl, who speaks good English.
--The Saturday Blade, Chicago, March 27, 1920, page 10.
CLAIMS VISION OF PATTI CAME AND GAVE HER ADVICE
With No Knowledge of Music, Girl Startles Critics by Her Wonderful Tones
NEW YORK, N. Y. -- Miss Belle Philrose, 23, who says she has never studied vocal culture and cannot read music, solemnly asserts that the spirit of Adelina Patti is teaching her to sing.
After the death of her parents, ten years ago, the girl went to live with Mr. and Mrs. Philip Levin and moved with them to Astoria two years ago. She does the housework for the family, but is treated as a daughter. She says she never got beyond the fifth grade of the grammar school and never was interested in music, not even humming tunes about her housework. The change came last October.
"Face Appeared in Room"
"Late one afternoon, while I was finishing some sewing," she said, "the sweet face of a woman appeared before me in the room. I didn't see anybody -- just the face, of no particular age, with dark eyes and dark hair rolled back. 'I am Adelina Patti,' said the smiling lips. 'You are too gifted to be a servant. You should be a great singer. I will teach you.'
"From time to time the vision appeared again, urging me to sing, and saying I should be a reincarnation of Patti. So I began playing and singing, though I cannot read a note of music, and no one ever showed me how to sing. Jake Dale, musical director of the war camp community service, heard me and was amazed when I told him I had never studied. He got me the chance to sing for the soldiers.
"When a famous woman teacher offered to instruct me free, the vision told me not to let anyone teach me -- that Patti herself would do it.
"I see the vision every day or two now."
Even Speaking Voice Changes
Miss Philrose says confidence has taken the place of diffidence since she began singing under Patti's direction. Even her speaking voice has changed.
She sat at the piano and played and sang Tosti's "Goodbye" and part of the "Chanson Provencale" in a sweet, bell-like soprano, without affectation. She says that Dr. Walter F. Prince, investigating officer of the Psychical Research Society, was studying her case, and pronounced it one of "remarkable music control."
Jack Dale admits he cannot understand the phenomenon. He thinks there is something psychical about it, but suggested her idea of a "vision" might have originated in a novel. He had never known anybody to do the things she does without coaching. At a trial in the Amsterdam Opera House, he said, she took a high C and sustained it in a way that startled her critical hearers, and then hadn't any idea what she had done.
She is of French descent, a pleasant looking girl, who speaks good English.
--The Saturday Blade, Chicago, March 27, 1920, page 10.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Sir Oliver Lodge Rushes To The Defense Of Spiritualism
1920
By United Press Leased Wire
London. -- The church should "cast off its hard shell of doctrine" and investigate, or at least keep an open mind toward discoveries of spiritualistic phenomena, Sir Oliver Lodge, famous British scientist, asserts in an article to be published in the next issue of the Hibbert Journal, leading British philosophical quarterly.
Lodge criticizes vigorously the attack on spiritualism which featured the Leister church congress. The church, he says already has discarded its old believes in the "fixity" of eternal fate at death or in two extreme regimes in the hereafter," but has not yet constituted for itself a new creed of equal strength.
The scientist recommends that the church investigate claims of communication with spirits, adding that if "ministers really open their minds to the evidence, if they examine the proofs carefully and without prejudice, they surely will be guided in the direction of truth."
"It will be the miracle of this generation," he asserts, "to find that by the kindly help of living persons who possess certain facilities" we may communicate with the dead.
"Our friend on the other side is not so far away from us," Sir Oliver continues. "He is removed from range of our animal sense organs, that is all. If the truth be as it certainly is -- that death makes no sudden change in personality or character, if existence is continuous and only surrounding conditions change, even that change being not nearly so great as had been anticipated, then there is nothing especially holy,or profoundly painful, or even unduly solemn in the thought of communicating with the dead."
While he recognizes the church is not free to explore new regions of thought, Lodge urges it to investigate and determine its attitude by proofs.
Only the widespread misery of war bereavements induced him to submit to publicity in defense of his belief in spiritualism, Sir Oliver said.
"Invaluably one communicates most by little traits," he said. "Special reminiscences give striking proofs of identify of the spirits," the scientist adds, declaring his own son Raymond, who was killed in the war, maintains close touch with his family.
Sir Oliver will soon leave for the United States on a lecture tour.
--The Appleton Daily Post, Appleton, Wisconsin, January 2, 1920, page 1.
By United Press Leased Wire
London. -- The church should "cast off its hard shell of doctrine" and investigate, or at least keep an open mind toward discoveries of spiritualistic phenomena, Sir Oliver Lodge, famous British scientist, asserts in an article to be published in the next issue of the Hibbert Journal, leading British philosophical quarterly.
Lodge criticizes vigorously the attack on spiritualism which featured the Leister church congress. The church, he says already has discarded its old believes in the "fixity" of eternal fate at death or in two extreme regimes in the hereafter," but has not yet constituted for itself a new creed of equal strength.
The scientist recommends that the church investigate claims of communication with spirits, adding that if "ministers really open their minds to the evidence, if they examine the proofs carefully and without prejudice, they surely will be guided in the direction of truth."
"It will be the miracle of this generation," he asserts, "to find that by the kindly help of living persons who possess certain facilities" we may communicate with the dead.
"Our friend on the other side is not so far away from us," Sir Oliver continues. "He is removed from range of our animal sense organs, that is all. If the truth be as it certainly is -- that death makes no sudden change in personality or character, if existence is continuous and only surrounding conditions change, even that change being not nearly so great as had been anticipated, then there is nothing especially holy,or profoundly painful, or even unduly solemn in the thought of communicating with the dead."
While he recognizes the church is not free to explore new regions of thought, Lodge urges it to investigate and determine its attitude by proofs.
Only the widespread misery of war bereavements induced him to submit to publicity in defense of his belief in spiritualism, Sir Oliver said.
"Invaluably one communicates most by little traits," he said. "Special reminiscences give striking proofs of identify of the spirits," the scientist adds, declaring his own son Raymond, who was killed in the war, maintains close touch with his family.
Sir Oliver will soon leave for the United States on a lecture tour.
--The Appleton Daily Post, Appleton, Wisconsin, January 2, 1920, page 1.
Interviews with Ouija
1920
By FREDERIC J. HASKIN,
Director Janesville Daily Gazette Information Bureau, Washington, D.C.
Washington, Feb. 20.—"Why don't you interview ouija?" asked a friend the other day.
We thought it over. Our relations with "weegee" have always been rather distant. We have met at parties and at the home of ouija janes. But always we have passed the time of day in a few trifling queries, and let it go at that. Certainly, we never expected to start interviewing spirit celebrities so long as the earthly supply held out.
Still, we reflected, there were advantages to this kind of interview. Ouija, once cornered, could not plead a previous engagement or a conference, and judging by his reputation he would have a lot to say.
So we decided to borrow a staid, serious minded old ouija and ask him about the Sims-Daniels scrap, and who ought to be the next president, and if there were any messages from cousin Lon, who is either dead or in Chicago. We knew the board to borrow. It belongs to an elderly woman who goes in for higher thought and concentration, and undoubtedly her ouija has never been asked a silly question in its life.
Borrowed Board and Book
The old woman promptly offered to get the board, and also a book on how to set the best results with ouija. We hauled ouija home, corralled a friend to act as accomplice, and with the setting arranged, settled down for the interview.
First we read the book carefully. We found out that "the solar plexus -- that never sleeping brain of the individual -- is the witch board or receiving station for the messages." We also discovered that "the great secret why some individuals can successfully use the board and some cannot is "that the successful person must have, so to speak, a diseasedly sensitive solar plexus." That worried us, as our solar plexus has always been pretty healthy, and was feared the message germs might not have any effect. For a while we held on to the hope that maybe the writer was mistaken about the solar plexus being the brain of the soul, but further on we found that ouija himself had told her, "The solar plexus is the spiritual brain." With his inside information and a warning that to get best results you must think high thoughts we invited "little weegee" to the interview.
For the property of a higher thought sort of person this ouija board certainly had a remarkable line of talk and interesting opinions. It told us that there would be a big message for us.
Aunt Harriet Is Happy
After a rest it condescended to tell us that Aunt Harriet, who died some years ago, "is happy, but when we asked for Dumas to come and tell us who was the man in the iron mask, it wouldn't write anything except, "They don't answer."
When we returned the board we commented on the rather flippant attitude that it seemed to have. "Well," said the old woman, "I never tried the board myself. It's the maid's board."
Having talked to "little weegee" we decided to find out something about his life history. The messenger at the patent office was frankly amused at our mission.
"Weejah?" he repeated with a huge grin. "Yessuh. Try de toy division, suh."
The toy division was also moved to laughter over the password, but soon recovered sufficiently for a pleasant young patent examiner to get a collection of the patents.
"There are now 30 or 40 patents along this line," he explained. "Some are ouija board type, worked by a moving index, and others are planchettes and have a pencil to write the message."
"The first ouija board, called 'little wonder,' was patented in 186S. Since then, the idea has been adapted and the board improved by numerous inventors, mostly toy makers. The ouija board and similar inventions can be patented in the United States only as a toy. The patent office does not inquire into any mystic properties, and it does not permit inventors to claim or describe such properties in their patent papers."
It's Different in England
In England inventors often go into detail to explain the supernatural power of such devices. Thus, one British patentee inserts the following on his patent:
"If the person or persons are of temperament suitable for the reception of spiritualistic or telepathic messages, sentences may be spent out obtained from such sources and possibly conveying information unknown to the operator; the largest number of messages are automatic, i.e., communications from the subliminal consciousness finding expression through muscular workings controlled in a method hitherto only imperfectly understood."
"What does ouija mean, anyway?" we asked the patent office, for we have heard all sorts of cabalistic meanings attached to the queer syllables. "Well," said an obliging clerk, "the name is trademarked just as a word, but we understand that it means 'yes, yes,' being derived from oui, which is French for yes, and ja, which is German."
This seems plausible, if we discount ouija's own statements that its name signifies "The Master Hand," or "The Unknown," or that it is Hawaiian for "Truth." If ouija had not told so many people such different names for itself it might be easier to believe that the name savors of the occult. As it is, we fear that some prosaic toymaker, French perhaps, or German, accidentally put these two syllables together and found the effect pleasing, so that he named the board which answered yes and no, ouija, a union of languages not offensive.
Inventor Doesn't Understand
The ouija board most used in the United States was patented by William Fuld, a Baltimore toy manufacturer. Mr. Fuld invented his board simply as a game of the puzzle or mystic variety. He is careful to say that he does not claim any remarkable powers for his invention, but on the other hand, he tells the public that he does not himself know exactly what makes the little table move in so uncanny a manner.
This Solomon-like verdict is the only safe one for the inventor, for to deny outspokenly that his little board held any kinship with spirits would greatly injure the trade in his best seller, while if he claimed mysterious powers in league with the bits of wood, then he might be held responsible for some of little ouija's playful jokes.
Take the recent case of the woman who was unable to account for the disappearance of a sum of money. Ouija told her that a certain neighbor had taken it, and this startling advice was accepted as a clue from heaven. The neighbor was dramatically accused of theft, and the case went to court, one woman claiming a charge of theft, and the other after a libel suit. In such an instance the inventor of ouija is safe from attack as the cause of it all, as he never claimed that his invention was infallible.
Comedy and Farce
Most of ouija's history has been comedy, so far, and a good deal has been farce, but in a few cases an unaccountable force is said to have guided the board. The outstanding example of this is the well known story of Patience Worth who sent messages to a St. Louis woman through a ouija board. The mystery of Patience was that she talked in the language of seventeenth century England, using words and figures of speech which the medium could not possibly know, but which were almost always found in dictionaries of archaic English. Patience is still a mystery -- a seventeenth century English spinster who came to St. Louis to give her poems to the twentieth century, and for social chats with the medium and her friends, all through the ouija board.
We had talked to the ouija board, and delved into its history, and there was one more thing we wanted to know about that ouija -- how does it work, anyway? We called up the bureau of standards, the government scientific laboratory. The chief clerk answered, after his secretary had gurgled our message to him between fits of giggles, easily heard over the phone. The chief clerk was amused too, but the third commandment of the government is to give a serious answer to inquiries.
"Of course," he said, "we have never made a study of this matter. Unofficially, I should say that there is a tendency for the eye to guide the table toward some letter. The influence of the eye is shown in that is almost impossible to get any results blindfolded.
"Yes," he continued, "it is probably the working of the sub-conscious mind."
Still, we wonder. Thousands of people play with the board every night when the supper table is cleared off, and weegee tells them what day Jim will come home, and who is playing at the Main street picture show. Sometimes weegee hits the answer, sometimes he fails. It is a game. But out of these thousands of ouija fans comes one who calls up a Patience Worth, to upset the common sense theories and keep us wondering.
--Janesville Daily Gazette, Janesville, Wisconsin, February 26, 1920, page 4.
By FREDERIC J. HASKIN,
Director Janesville Daily Gazette Information Bureau, Washington, D.C.
Washington, Feb. 20.—"Why don't you interview ouija?" asked a friend the other day.
We thought it over. Our relations with "weegee" have always been rather distant. We have met at parties and at the home of ouija janes. But always we have passed the time of day in a few trifling queries, and let it go at that. Certainly, we never expected to start interviewing spirit celebrities so long as the earthly supply held out.
Still, we reflected, there were advantages to this kind of interview. Ouija, once cornered, could not plead a previous engagement or a conference, and judging by his reputation he would have a lot to say.
So we decided to borrow a staid, serious minded old ouija and ask him about the Sims-Daniels scrap, and who ought to be the next president, and if there were any messages from cousin Lon, who is either dead or in Chicago. We knew the board to borrow. It belongs to an elderly woman who goes in for higher thought and concentration, and undoubtedly her ouija has never been asked a silly question in its life.
Borrowed Board and Book
The old woman promptly offered to get the board, and also a book on how to set the best results with ouija. We hauled ouija home, corralled a friend to act as accomplice, and with the setting arranged, settled down for the interview.
First we read the book carefully. We found out that "the solar plexus -- that never sleeping brain of the individual -- is the witch board or receiving station for the messages." We also discovered that "the great secret why some individuals can successfully use the board and some cannot is "that the successful person must have, so to speak, a diseasedly sensitive solar plexus." That worried us, as our solar plexus has always been pretty healthy, and was feared the message germs might not have any effect. For a while we held on to the hope that maybe the writer was mistaken about the solar plexus being the brain of the soul, but further on we found that ouija himself had told her, "The solar plexus is the spiritual brain." With his inside information and a warning that to get best results you must think high thoughts we invited "little weegee" to the interview.
For the property of a higher thought sort of person this ouija board certainly had a remarkable line of talk and interesting opinions. It told us that there would be a big message for us.
Aunt Harriet Is Happy
After a rest it condescended to tell us that Aunt Harriet, who died some years ago, "is happy, but when we asked for Dumas to come and tell us who was the man in the iron mask, it wouldn't write anything except, "They don't answer."
When we returned the board we commented on the rather flippant attitude that it seemed to have. "Well," said the old woman, "I never tried the board myself. It's the maid's board."
Having talked to "little weegee" we decided to find out something about his life history. The messenger at the patent office was frankly amused at our mission.
"Weejah?" he repeated with a huge grin. "Yessuh. Try de toy division, suh."
The toy division was also moved to laughter over the password, but soon recovered sufficiently for a pleasant young patent examiner to get a collection of the patents.
"There are now 30 or 40 patents along this line," he explained. "Some are ouija board type, worked by a moving index, and others are planchettes and have a pencil to write the message."
"The first ouija board, called 'little wonder,' was patented in 186S. Since then, the idea has been adapted and the board improved by numerous inventors, mostly toy makers. The ouija board and similar inventions can be patented in the United States only as a toy. The patent office does not inquire into any mystic properties, and it does not permit inventors to claim or describe such properties in their patent papers."
It's Different in England
In England inventors often go into detail to explain the supernatural power of such devices. Thus, one British patentee inserts the following on his patent:
"If the person or persons are of temperament suitable for the reception of spiritualistic or telepathic messages, sentences may be spent out obtained from such sources and possibly conveying information unknown to the operator; the largest number of messages are automatic, i.e., communications from the subliminal consciousness finding expression through muscular workings controlled in a method hitherto only imperfectly understood."
"What does ouija mean, anyway?" we asked the patent office, for we have heard all sorts of cabalistic meanings attached to the queer syllables. "Well," said an obliging clerk, "the name is trademarked just as a word, but we understand that it means 'yes, yes,' being derived from oui, which is French for yes, and ja, which is German."
This seems plausible, if we discount ouija's own statements that its name signifies "The Master Hand," or "The Unknown," or that it is Hawaiian for "Truth." If ouija had not told so many people such different names for itself it might be easier to believe that the name savors of the occult. As it is, we fear that some prosaic toymaker, French perhaps, or German, accidentally put these two syllables together and found the effect pleasing, so that he named the board which answered yes and no, ouija, a union of languages not offensive.
Inventor Doesn't Understand
The ouija board most used in the United States was patented by William Fuld, a Baltimore toy manufacturer. Mr. Fuld invented his board simply as a game of the puzzle or mystic variety. He is careful to say that he does not claim any remarkable powers for his invention, but on the other hand, he tells the public that he does not himself know exactly what makes the little table move in so uncanny a manner.
This Solomon-like verdict is the only safe one for the inventor, for to deny outspokenly that his little board held any kinship with spirits would greatly injure the trade in his best seller, while if he claimed mysterious powers in league with the bits of wood, then he might be held responsible for some of little ouija's playful jokes.
Take the recent case of the woman who was unable to account for the disappearance of a sum of money. Ouija told her that a certain neighbor had taken it, and this startling advice was accepted as a clue from heaven. The neighbor was dramatically accused of theft, and the case went to court, one woman claiming a charge of theft, and the other after a libel suit. In such an instance the inventor of ouija is safe from attack as the cause of it all, as he never claimed that his invention was infallible.
Comedy and Farce
Most of ouija's history has been comedy, so far, and a good deal has been farce, but in a few cases an unaccountable force is said to have guided the board. The outstanding example of this is the well known story of Patience Worth who sent messages to a St. Louis woman through a ouija board. The mystery of Patience was that she talked in the language of seventeenth century England, using words and figures of speech which the medium could not possibly know, but which were almost always found in dictionaries of archaic English. Patience is still a mystery -- a seventeenth century English spinster who came to St. Louis to give her poems to the twentieth century, and for social chats with the medium and her friends, all through the ouija board.
We had talked to the ouija board, and delved into its history, and there was one more thing we wanted to know about that ouija -- how does it work, anyway? We called up the bureau of standards, the government scientific laboratory. The chief clerk answered, after his secretary had gurgled our message to him between fits of giggles, easily heard over the phone. The chief clerk was amused too, but the third commandment of the government is to give a serious answer to inquiries.
"Of course," he said, "we have never made a study of this matter. Unofficially, I should say that there is a tendency for the eye to guide the table toward some letter. The influence of the eye is shown in that is almost impossible to get any results blindfolded.
"Yes," he continued, "it is probably the working of the sub-conscious mind."
Still, we wonder. Thousands of people play with the board every night when the supper table is cleared off, and weegee tells them what day Jim will come home, and who is playing at the Main street picture show. Sometimes weegee hits the answer, sometimes he fails. It is a game. But out of these thousands of ouija fans comes one who calls up a Patience Worth, to upset the common sense theories and keep us wondering.
--Janesville Daily Gazette, Janesville, Wisconsin, February 26, 1920, page 4.
Monday, April 9, 2007
Evangelists Raps Spiritualists, They Rap Back
Anaconda, Montana, 1905-06
EVANGELIST DANIELS RAPS SPIRITUALISM
SCANDINAVIAN PREACHER SAYS IT IS OF ANCIENT ORIGIN
HE ROASTS THE MEDIUMS
Denies the power of humans to call up the spirits of the dead and says that if they can only evil ones would respond.
If John J. Daniels, pastor of the Rockford, Ill., Swedish church and traveling evangelist, has the right of it spiritualism is a humbug. Evangelist Daniels, who is now on an evangelistic tour of the coast, preached in Swedish last evening in the church on the corner of Alder and Fifth streets to a large and interested audience.
Mr. Daniels showed that there is nothing new about spiritualism; that there were spiritualists in the days of Moses. It was a medium, he said, that called up the spirit of Samuel for Saul. He said that modern spiritualism is supposed to have originated in the year 1848. A family by the name of Fox in Hydesville, N. Y., was much disturbed by spirit rappings and when Miss Kate Fox spoke to these rappings she discovered that they were made by the spirit of a murdered peddler. The spirit would answer questions by rapping once for no and three times for yes. All spirits are said to follow this rule.
Miss Kate Fox and her sister discovered that it was possible to communicate in this manner with any spirit of the dead, especially with relatives, but the spirits would answer questions only through mediums. The Fox sisters were the first mediums in modern spiritualism.
Many Kinds of Mediums
Mr. Daniels stated that since 1848 the means of communicating with spirits has developed wonderfully. There are now many kinds of mediums. We have slat writing mediums, spirit circle mediums, trance mediums, materializing mediums and medium photographers.
Modern spiritualism has progressed rapidly and there are many thousands in all civilized nations. They have more than 10 newspapers developed to their interests, and, according to the last census, there are 50,000 spiritualists in the United States. There are many among the Scandinavians of both the old and the new world.
These people have no common doctrine. They believe there is a God, but they do not believe in the divinity of Christ, and they interpret the Bible to suit their own peculiar notions. Some mediums claim they have communicated with the spirit of Christ and the spirits of the apostles. In these communications Christ disowns the divinity, and the Apostle Paul congratulates the spiritualists on having found the light and the truth.
Spiritualists do not believe in the resurrection of the dead, buy they believe with Swedenborg in a development in the spirit world. They do not believe there is a hell, but many of them profess to believe in the theory of reincarnation.
Only Evil Spirits
Mr. Daniels expressed believe in a spirit world, but did not think that mediums had the power to call the spirits of the dead or communicate with them. He thought that if they could communicate with any spirits it is only with evil spirits. The phenomena of spiritualism can be ascribed almost wholly to trickery and to hypnotism. When the mediums go into trances they are in a hypnotic condition. When in this condition they make some wonderful and startling guesses, as they are all clever mind readers.
In conclusion he showed that spiritualism produced sin, vice and immorality. He said that spiritualism is the religion of free love, and mediums were usually grass widows. They have a superstition that a seventh daughter of a seventh sister is the best medium, but according to the speaker the seventh wife of a seventh husband was the best. He warned people who investigated spiritualism against allowing themselves to be hypnotized, as it greatly weakens the will power.
Mr. Daniels will speak in the same church to-night on "Infidelity." He expects to remain in the city for a week or more, and he will then go to Missoula and on to the coast cities and towns.
--The Anaconda Standard, Anaconda, Montana, December 14, 1905, page 5.
ANOTHER REPLY TO THE SWEDISH EVANGELIST
EDITOR TUTTLE WRITES ABOUT THE SPIRITUALISTIC FAITH
HE ASKS FOR A FAIR DEAL
Fewer divorces and less criminality among spiritualists than any other faith, according to Mr. Tuttle's statistics
Hudson Tuttle, the acknowledged chief of the spiritualists of the United States, writing from Berlin Heights, Ohio in reply to the sermon preached in this city some time ago by a Scandinavian evangelist, has the following to say:
Editor of The Anaconda Standard: "In your issue of Dec. 14 appears a report of a sermon by Evangelist Daniels, in which he roasts mediums and denies the power of humans to call up the spirits of the dead, and says if they can, only evil ones would respond. In his discourse he assails spiritualism, making charges so far from the truth that he shows either utter ignorance of the subject or a design to mislead. If his object is to lead believers away from what he thinks a great sin and delusion, should he not have in some small measure the charity of the Master? Can he hope to win by epithets and false representations? As this sermon is one of his stock, constantly repeated wherever he goes, he ought to know that his statements are correct and the ground solid beneath his feet.
"He commences by saying that there is nothing new about spiritualism, as though someone had made that claim. Spiritualists make no such claim. To the contrary, they hold it to be as old as the rain. The Bible, from beginning to end, is filled with records of spirit ministrations, and there is not a phase of mediumship between the spirit world and this not given in its pages. History records manifestations of spirits in all ages and among all races, from the savage to the most civilized. All the spiritualists claim is that in its modern form it belongs to the present. The study of the laws and conditions of the psychic or spiritual domain by the methods of physical science -- experimentation, careful observation of phenomena and co-ordination of facts; the deduction therefrom of a philosophy of life, here and hereafter; the foundation on this basis of a system of ethics and of a religion which is devoted to righteousness— this is spiritualism as understood by its believers.
"As Rev. Daniels admits that spirits can communicate, there is no contention on that point. But he is not content with this theory. He declares that the phenomenon can be ascribed almost wholly to trickery and hypnotism. Hypnotism is one of those all-embracing terms which, when difficulties arise, sound learned, but mean nothing. But there is a residium left which neither trickery nor hypnotism can explain even to Rev. Daniel's satisfaction, and he calls in evil spirits to his aid. He takes the Bible as infallible authority, and by what right does he dare assert that all spirits that communicate are evil? He well says that spiritualism is not new. Yes, and is it not the same spiritualism recorded in the Bible? The witch of Endor was a medium when she called up the spirit of Samuel. Was he an evil spirit? An angel unloosed Peter from chains in prison; an angel appeared to Hager; two came to Abraham; angels came to Joseph. These are a few instances recorded, for the book must be almost quoted as a whole to give them all. Were these angels and messengers evil spirits? "What is a spirit? According to Matthew, xiv., 26; Luke, xxiv., 37, 'The soul of man separated from his body,' of this being it is said, Hebrews, i., 14, 'Are not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister to them who shall be heirs to salvation?' Is it not strange that while our good and loving friends are shut from us by an impassable wall, the evil spirits can approach, communicate and lead us to ruin? There is not a text in the Bible supporting Rev. Daniels in this conclusion, which is a libel on the God he worships.
"But his opinion, being no more than an opinion, requires only passing mention. His charges against the moral status of spiritualists are of vastly more consequence. They are such as no Christian gentleman should make unless doubly sure of their correctness. Only overwhelming sense of sinfulness and desire to save souls from ruin would justify such uncharitable accusations. As reported, he said: 'In conclusion he showed that spiritualism produced sin, vice and immorality. He said that spiritualism is the religion of free love, and mediums were usually grass widows. They have a superstition that a seventh daughter of a seventh sister is the best medium, but, according to the speaker, the seventh wife of a seventh husband was the best.' These are all threadbare charges, utterly without foundation in truth. He truly said that spiritualism has made rapid growth. It is estimated that there are 3,000,000 of spiritualists in the United States. It has representative journals in England, France, Germany, Australia, New Zealand and the South American states. It has a national association possessing a splendid home building at Washington, with a library and publishing bureau for the free distribution of its literature; a missionary force in the field and a lyceum or Sunday school for instruction of the children in its principles. This association has all the rights and privileges conferred by law on religious bodies.
"Is not a tree known by its fruits? Spiritualism has been before the world for more than 50 years. If it is the work of evil spirits, and hence immoral in its tendencies should not the record of crime indicate its influence? I have collected the reports of all great penal institutions in this country and Canada and find that not a single spiritualist is reported within their walls. There are more than 700 ministers of the gospel and several evangelists, but not a single spiritualist. I do not mention this strange fact in disparagement of the ministerial profession, but to emphasize the statement that spiritualism leads directly away from crime. As to the charge of 'free love,' in all the standard literature of spiritualism there cannot be found one word of endorsement of that doctrine. Is not a cause represented by the organizations formed for its culture and extension? Are not all churches represented by their creeds? The national association thus represents spiritualism, and its statement of principles has no word indorsing any other relation in married life than that of the purest love, mutual devotion and faithfulness to the vows which make two souls one in the journey of life. It publishes a ritual containing the marriage service, and its ordained speakers have the right to officiate at marriages. There are fewer divorces among spiriutalists than of other beliefs, for the marriage relation is held with greater reverence as not only continuing till death, but into the infinite life beyond."
--The Anaconda Standard, Anaconda, Montana, January 1, 1906, page 2.
Spiritualists Disappointed in Chicago Medium's Efforts
1910
FAILS TO BRING SPOOKS TO TIME
Tired of the flat performances given by outside mediums of renown the Des Moines spiritualists will now go it alone and next Sunday evening they will have a meeting open to the public at Homesteaders' hall at which time local talent with spooks will be given a chance. Mrs. Hill, the Chicago medium, disappointed the local spiritualists and she has returned to her home. Despite her fame the spooks seemed reluctant to materialize, and the local members of the society say they can put on hotter stunts themselves.
--The Des Moines News, Des Moines, Iowa, February 13, 1910, page 16.
FAILS TO BRING SPOOKS TO TIME
Tired of the flat performances given by outside mediums of renown the Des Moines spiritualists will now go it alone and next Sunday evening they will have a meeting open to the public at Homesteaders' hall at which time local talent with spooks will be given a chance. Mrs. Hill, the Chicago medium, disappointed the local spiritualists and she has returned to her home. Despite her fame the spooks seemed reluctant to materialize, and the local members of the society say they can put on hotter stunts themselves.
--The Des Moines News, Des Moines, Iowa, February 13, 1910, page 16.
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